I know the bulk of the World of Warcraft community feel that the launch of Warlords of Draenor could have gone smoother. However, I have to give some credit to Blizzard for producing not only another solid expansion pack but for also resolving most issues — while under tremendous fan pressure — in such a short timeframe. Blizzard's apology in the form of five days of free game time for subscription holders was warmly received and appreciated.
As for the expansion the progression took about a week to get my Rogue from level ninety to one hundred with no thought as to what I would be doing once I capped out. Many may be standing in their Garrison thinking "Now what?"
Player versus Environment (PvE)
Having played multiple classes over my ten years in World of Warcraft, what keeps me coming back time after time is the Player versus Environment (PvE) content, in particular Endgame PvE content. Each piece of gear you obtain has an item level, level requirement, attributes, and a quality rating identified by a colour. Your overall item level is an average of all your equipped items as well as any usable equipment in your inventory. Your item level will help with the completion of Dungeons and Raids, which if done early will enable your character access to tougher Raid content as soon as it becomes available. As you are now level one hundred its time to prepare for Endgame.
Dungeons
As you level up Dungeons become available to you, requiring a group of five players consisting of a Tank, a Healer and three Damage per Second (DPS) classes. The role of a Tank is to obtain the focus of all attacking enemies using their higher armour rating and greater health pool to soak up as much damage as possible. A Healer is there to keep everyone alive, with the Tank being priority before themselves. The role of the DPS class is to inflict as much damage as quickly as possible without incurring injury while the enemy concentrates on the Tank.
Completing a Dungeon requires a group to defeat Elite enemies that have a random chance to drop loot of varying qualities with the Dungeon Boss providing a 100% chance. The first Dungeon — Bloodmaul Slag Mines — becomes available at level ninety and requires a minimum item level of five hundred with more becoming available with higher item level requirements and increased difficulty. At level one hundred, you can enable Heroic mode that grants access to even harder variants of those Dungeons. This may be the first time you hear the term "Stay out of the fire" but movement from danger is essential when playing Heroic. The differences between a Normal Dungeon and its Heroic version varies but can include enemies at higher levels, greater health or more attack damage, and different Boss abilities and mechanics. Playing on Heroic is currently the best way to obtain higher level gear, but not the same level as items received from Raids. The gear that drops typically has an item level of six hundred and thirty, with a minimum item level of six hundred and ten needed to access Heroics. If your item level is too low do not worry as you can still access Dungeons on Normal difficulty, Heroics ultimately are a means to prepare you for Raid content.
Quests
If you do not meet the minimum item level to attempt Heroics, your best bet is to continue Questing. You will most likely hit level one hundred in the middle of a Quest, with no reason not to complete them all in each zone as you receive gold in lieu of experience. Completing Quests also presents a random chance that the reward will be of a higher item level and quality. For example; a Quest reward may be an Uncommon quality shield with an item level of five hundred and ninety-five. Instead, when you hand the Quest in you receive an Epic quality shield with an item level of six hundred and ten and better stats over the original. Therefore, Questing at one hundred serves as a juncture into early Endgame content, and a way to increase the thickness of your in-game wallet.
Proving Grounds
Proving Grounds provide a good way to learn your role in a group, whether you are new to the game or a returning player in need of some practice. Once you hit one hundred you should find a Quest in your Garrison that tasks you with achieving a bronze level of completion on the proving grounds. As a DPS class, you will learn how to prioritise your targets and learn crucial survival skills required for Heroics and Raids. As a Tank class, you will learn how to hold threat — or Aggro — on your targets, allowing your DPS group members to do their job of dealing damage unhindered. As a Healer, you will learn the basics of healing when under pressure, an important skill that you will improve over time with practice. While other players may expect you to be a god at playing your class during your first encounter, no one is perfect. Blizzard prides themselves on making World of Warcraft a game that is "easy to learn, but hard to master." Remember everyone was at your level at one point in time, keep practising.
Raids
Raids are structured similarly to Dungeons but are a lot harder — even when attempting them on Normal mode. Groups consist of between ten and forty players trying to win the end Boss fight with success requiring a considerable amount of coordination and persistence. There are currently four levels of difficulty for a Raid in Warlords of Draenor; Looking for Raid (LFR), Normal, Heroic, and Mythic. Just like Dungeons each mode will increase in difficulty over the last with Mythic being designed for the Hardcore community or masochists. LFR will most likely be your first foray into Raiding as it targets the casual player who may not have the time to commit to weekly Raids, but still wants to see the Endgame content. Unless you are in a guild with people who are willing to teach you, LFR is probably the best place to start.
Tier gear is the best items you can receive and is available from Normal mode and higher and should be your focus if you intend on Raiding regularly. Raids operate on a lock-out system resetting each week, meaning you can only receive loot from each Boss once per week. Each difficulty has a separate timer, which if you plan on Raiding on a regular basis allows you to attempt each level once per week. This will help you to upgrade your gear, although items received in LFR will be of the lowest quality, and Bosses will not drop Tier gear.
Player versus Player (PvP)
My Player versus Player (PvP) skills are weak, and my level of tolerance is borderline zero. I have no patience for PvP or any desire to participate in gameplay where random death can come quickly. Having to evade a group of Death Knights whose idea of fun is to use the Death Grip spell to toss me back and forth like a pinball is not my definition of a good time. However, seeing as PvP is a crucial aspect of the World of Warcraft universe and lore, now seemed like a good time to get involved.
Ashran
Near Tanaan Jungle — located on the eastern coast of Draenor's mainland — is a little island housing the new PvP world zone Ashran. Your first visit to Ashran will be during the construction of your Garrison, where you will visit the Horde stronghold of Warspear or the Alliance stronghold of Stormshield depending on which faction you are aligned to. Parts of each stronghold are accessible to everyone regardless of level, with the combat zone being restricted to level one hundred players only. Entering the combat zone will flag you immediately, signalling to the enemy you are ready to throw down and allowing them to attack you freely.
The gameplay objective of Ashran PvP is essentially a continuous tug-o-war won by control of capture points. Both factions begin by fighting for control of The Crossroads located in the middle of the combat zone; the next capture point becomes available to the party that commands the central point. If your side fails to take control of the next point at any time, your team will be forced back to the previous capture point, explaining the tug-o-war similarity. With the control of all capture points, the assault on the stronghold can commence. To successfully defeat the enemy, the Alliance must defeat High Warlord Volrath while the Horde must kill Grand Marshal Tremblade. Both of these characters are Non-Playable Characters (NPC) but are akin to Raid bosses meaning your team should regroup ahead of the battle before attacking them head-on. With the defeat of the enemy leader, the battle ends rewarding the winning players Honor and Conquest points along with PvP equipment.
The currency of Ashran is Artifact Fragments enabling you to spawn friendly NPCs to assist in the defense or attack of capture points, as well as to assault the enemy stronghold. Handing in Artifact Fragments to designated vendors at your stronghold will allow you to spawn special NPCs to attack the enemy, or create Mage Portals or Warlock Gateways allowing instant teleportation around Ashran. Artifact Fragments are principally obtained by killing opposing players or in smaller amounts by looting enemy mobs in the area, giving the zone a Player versus Environment (PvE) aspect. Powerful Elite mobs can be killed to gain buffs and large quantities of Artifact Fragments but keep clear of these fights unless you are in a group with at least a Tank and a Healer. Not leaving Artifact Fragments in your possession for too long is essential as death costs you half, with enemy players able to loot your lost half if they kill you.
Battlegrounds and Arena
These modes are classic World of Warcraft PvP, with Battlegrounds being able to be entered alone or in a party. At this stage in the expansion, no new battlegrounds have been added — mainly because of the addition of Ashran and removal of the Call-to-Arms feature. To begin each team is assigned random players with balancing being performed behind the scenes for both sides. Completing a random Battleground will reward each player with either Bronze, Silver or Gold lockboxes containing PvP equipment, Honor points or Conquest points. The quality of the lockbox is dependent on how your team performs during the match, and if they were victorious. For example; if your team captures one flag in Warsong Gulch, but you lose the battle because the other team captures two, your reward is a Bronze lockbox. Blizzard have confirmed that this new system is designed to encourage more people to participate in Battlegrounds.
Arena matches come in three modes, two versus two (2v2), three versus three (3v3) and five versus five (5v5). To join an Arena match, you must first build at least one team — with a maximum of one for each mode — via the PvP section of your User Interface (UI). Each match lasts up to twenty minutes with the victor having the most kills or until all members of the team have died. Completing Arenas earn players Conquest points and gives your team a rank for the season. With each season end, teams who have ranked the highest receive exclusive rewards and titles.
Unranked Arena matches — or skirmishes — have made a return for the first time since their introduction during the Burning Crusade expansion. These events work off the same rules as Arena Matches; however you can join a match alone and be placed on a random team. You will not receive a ranking, but completing skirmishes will reward you with lockboxes based on your performance.
The Other Stuff
Apart from PvP and PvE, there are several new and old activities to partake in which reward you in various ways. While some of these older features are still a large part of the game, they are effectively no longer core gameplay mechanics.
Garrisons
With the news of the addition of Garrisons in this expansion there has been much hype surrounding them, and rightly so. By now you will have seen how much emphasis Questing puts on your Garrison at times while levelling in Draenor, due to the storyline. Essentially your Garrison is both your base and your home while on Draenor with many buildings that you can construct or replace as your needs see fit. Mandatory buildings you cannot replace are the Town Hall, the Fishing hut, the Mine, the Menagerie, and the Farm. Your Garrison is also home to your followers, some of which you would have recruited while levelling.
Now that you are at level one hundred you are going to spend a fair bit of time maintaining your Garrison with the Mine producing Ore, and the Farm growing Herbs each day. You are not required to have chosen the mining or herbalism professions to gather and utilise these resources though they will help deliver larger quantities. The Fishing Hut, located on the banks of a small pond populated by various fish native to Draenor, also provides a daily fishing Quest. This will reward you with an increase in your fishing skill — provided you have learnt the skill — and a bag containing random items related to fishing, such as lures and possibly even pets. The Menagerie provides bonuses for capturing pets in the wild and will provide a daily pet battle Quest, which rewards a battle pet item.
There are no rules in how you design your Garrison, but you should build according to your needs. For instance, if you have learned the Leatherworking profession, then the Tannery building will help progress your skills with this profession. Alternatively if you build the Alchemy Lab it will eventually produce Raid level potions and flasks, even if you do not have the Alchemy profession. Each building can receive two upgrades with each providing a bonus. If a building is replaced it loses its levels and will need to be rebuilt and upgraded from level one again. You should view your Garrison as a tool, using it to increase your abilities while on Draenor.
Achievements, Old Content and Transmogrification
World of Warcraft has over two thousand Achievements that range from simple tasks like using the outhouse in your Garrison to more complicated tasks like completing every Quest line in every zone on every continent. Most people will attempt to unlock one based on the reward it offers, such as mounts and tabards.
Old Content and Transmogrification — transmog for short — go hand in hand in most cases. Any fan of the Warcraft games will know how significant characters such as Illidan Stormrage and Arthas Menethill are in the Warcraft Universe. If you missed the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions, it means you missed killing these two well-recognised characters in their respective Raids. The exclusive loot from these Raids will still drop from time to time, but you can make your equipment look like these items via the transmog vendor. There are limitations though as you must match the gear you transmog. For example; a two-handed sword cannot transmogrify into a dagger, and cloth armour cannot transmogrify into plate armour.
Archaeology
Archaeology was first introduced in the Cataclysm expansion and has grown since then. The idea is that you are moving from one designated area to the next and digging up archaeological fragments that can be combined to create Lore Artifacts that vary in quality. Each completed Artifact is recorded in your archaeology journal so that you can keep a record of what you have collected over time. If the combined fragments produce an item of Common quality, you have the option to sell it for Gold or change it into a Restored Artifact which you can trade in for a different archaeology fragment.
Auction House
The Auction House is where you can go to attempt to sell your unwanted loot to other players. Just like in real life is possible to play the auction house, by means of buying low and selling high. Auction houses can be found in each capital city, as well as in Ashran. Horde, Alliance and Neutral Auction Houses have recently been combined allowing for cross faction trading between players.
Pet Battles
The pet battle system — introduced in the Mists of Pandaria expansion — allows you to capture small pets from all over the world and train them in battle with other wild pets or other players’ pets. Pets vary in quality that affects their stats; however Epic and Legendary quality pets are not yet available to the players. Each pet will be from a particular family with different strengths and weaknesses, and up to six moves from those families. You can face off against NPC trainers who will have Epic or Legendary pets so make sure you use your pet's abilities to your advantage. For example; if your pet is from the Beast family it will take less damage from Humanoid attacks, but take more damage from Mechanical attacks. As your pet levels up to the current level cap of twenty-five, it will unlock more moves that are not limited to just your pets family. For instance, a pet from the Dragonkin family will have Dragonkin moves, but you can also unlock moves from the Flying family. If your pet dies and needs reviving, you can do so once every eight minutes via the revive pet button in the battle pet screen. You can also perform this at any time by speaking to the Stable Master NPC located in every Inn.
There are over six hundred battle pets excluding pets from the online store. I find that collecting and levelling these pets through battle is a good way to kill time if you are in a queue for a Heroic or LFR Raid.
Alts
When playing World of Warcraft you will have your Main character which is usually the first character you created. It can also be the character you play the most or a have high level of proficiency. I decide who my Main will be at the beginning of every expansion, allowing some diversity in my play styles. For Warlords of Draenor, I am playing a Rogue, whereas last expansion I played a Warrior. You can also create Alternate Characters (Alt) which are great for sampling the other classes, factions, or even just having around to play with when friends join who are at lower levels than your Main. Levelling an Alt means creating a new character and levelling them up from level one to one hundred. At some point in time, you will likely want to experience all the different classes available, I currently have eight Alts at various levels. If or when you join a guild, you will probably be asked what your Main is and if you have any Alts, so they know your skill set.
Alts are also a good way to build professions that your Main does not have. My Rogue is a Leather Worker and Skinner, but my Warrior is a Blacksmith and Miner and once I get all of my Alts to level one hundred I will have access to all of their professions. Alts are also an excellent way to make money through the myriad of Quests and can provide a good way to recap the story lines you missed when racing through on the way to one hundred.
Even though all these features are available, there will still be many people complaining that there is nothing to do. Blizzard have done an excellent job of balancing the needs of the casual and the hardcore player, a task that many other developers have struggled with or failed. If none of these activities appeal to you, I suggest taking a look at what it is that keeps you logging in every day and focus on that. This is a guide and not a roadmap; your needs will be different to mine. Take comfort in the fact that if you do get bored with the current content more will come. It always does.
